Beamer wrote on May 22, 2014, 13:23:Just ask yourselves if something is an improvement.

If I do not/can not identify with a character that has a different gender, race, religion or sexual orientation than mine, then that is clearly not an improvement for me as the person playing the game.

However, if it helps someone else identify with the character they are playing, and allows them the enjoy the game more thoroughly, I will happily shout "That's an improvement!"

My issue is when "diversity" becomes a checkbox on a spec sheet and the resulting characters are cardboard cutouts or are so laughably done to highlight that "diversity" that they become caricatures. At that point, I think it becomes a disservice to inclusivity and diversity.

In entertainment, as a whole, we really don't handle that very well if at all. We, as a society, have this myopic view that doesn't allow people to just be people. We feel driven to label and exclude, even when we do it to ourselves as human beings. We want to point ourselves out as "special" for either X criteria or Y reason.

Burrito of Peace wrote on May 21, 2014, 11:30:Having worked with Mr. Roberts at both Digital Anvil and Origin, I know he is very passionate about space sims and that he will, eventually, bring about a solid title.

Did you clean his desk? or did he just keep a piece of skirt like you around for funzies?

netnerd85 wrote on May 21, 2014, 10:30:Something I can play before 2020 thanks darling

PS my partner donated to that scam what feels like years ago

Sweetheart, you can play the Derek Smart games now if that's what you need to scratch your itch.

I have also donated to SC and I'm less worried now than I was previously. Having worked with Mr. Roberts at both Digital Anvil and Origin, I know he is very passionate about space sims and that he will, eventually, bring about a solid title.

With a Live USB (because, really, who the Hell burns discs today on a regular basis), the only driver problems I've run in to has been systems that use Broadcom wireless chipsets. Outside of that, CentOS, Crunchbang, Mint, Fedora, Mageia, Manjaro, Zorin and the like have all worked flawlessly when booting off the sticks. In fact, in using a Live USB stick and the Universal USB Installer, you can set up most Debian based distros to have a persistent partition of up to 4GB which then allows you to treat the USB stick like a mobile OS deployment.

Apple won't do it because they don't support a non-phone hardware install base larger than two types and the idiots who buy those believe pushing the magic button and sitting in their walled garden is the greatest thing ever.

Microsoft can't do it because MS is expected to support every random combination of hardware under the sun although you can boot in to a very basic PE environment. That clearly isn't going to work in an ecosystem that doesn't have shared driver support (as Linux does in general).

skyguy wrote on May 13, 2014, 18:24:Linux From Scratch is a huge amount of work. Gentoo Linux is basically LFS except all the downloading and compiling is automated, and they have a hardened version as well. You still have to trust the Gentoo developers, but it is a completely community oriented project, no big company support. I trust 'em.

This is correct. However, for me, LFS is the best way to learn how and why Linux works instead of leaning on some random from the Internet whom you trust to make an install that will be either good enough, near perfect or perfectly suited to not just your system but your application and intents.

Normally, that wouldn't bother me if I am dicking around with a desktop distro ala Crunchang, Arch, etc. However, for something that I consider incredibly important, like my router, I like knowing exactly what, when, how and why it operates to my exact specifications.

Eth0 serves as the WAN port and connects directly to the modem. Eth1 is the LAN port that connects to the switch. From there, systems are hardwired in. We have three dumb WAPs that service the few wireless devices we have. Wireless devices are kept on their own subnet without the ability to see the rest of the network. Assume standard hardening principles for access control and restriction.

InBlack wrote on May 13, 2014, 10:01:rofl...yeah but how are you going to get around the NSA backdoor conveniently placed directly inside your router?

I built my own using an old Q6600 based system I had laying around and Linux from Scratch. While I can't say with 100% certainty that the NSA doesn't have very deep roots in to every binary used in the project, I am reasonably certain that they do not. Following the Hardened Linux from Scratch method, I feel comfortable with the security of that router.

I'm guessing had I put "and we wore onions on our belt, which was the style at the time", the sarcasm of my previous post would have been more apparent? Outside of people my age, and older, how many people remember actually using membrane inputs ala the Atari 400?

Though, back in the day, gamepads sucked compared to the awesomeness of the Sidewinder, Firebird and original Gravis Joystick. I still have my Sidewinder force feedback joystick. Use it and an N52 to do a lot of space simming.